This might have been the best $24.99 game I’ve purchased on the Meta Quest not called Beat Saber. Not a joke.
Rogue Piñatas: VRmageddon from developer Nerd Ninjas is an interesting virtual reality experience. The devs took the Call of Duty Zombies blueprint and replaced all the scary places and undead peeps with something far more terrifying – colorful environments and vicious piñatas. No, I’m not joking. And, yes, it works very well.
Let’s swing and smash open the details of this review.
Story
The devs at Nerd Ninjas knew the world they were building when they set up the narrative for Rogue Piñatas: VRmageddon. As insane as it sounds, it works brilliantly with the gameplay it complements.
You play as a birthday kid who is whacking the hell out of a pinata. During the violent celebration and quest to burst the piñata’s insides in order to eat all the delicious candy its body holds, the creature comes alive and fights back. The fight isn’t simply a 1v1 ordeal, rather it is a ‘We’ve had enough’ type of situation as hundreds/thousands of piñatas come to life and rebel against humans.
The way the story setup was presented was cute, yet unsettling. Funnily enough, in a way the piñatas don’t seem like the monsters. Considering the beating they take at birthday parties, it makes storytelling sense that eventually they would simply have had enough with humans. The story reminds me of a famous Skittles commercial that shows the brutality of mankind when it comes to piñata perception.
All joking aside, I like the quick inlet for the game’s story setup. I think it brilliantly ignites and gives credence to the immediate emerging gameplay it brings to the table. It works for this type of world and does just enough to justify the game’s situation at hand. In other words, it’s a good enough story that is entertaining as it is just a tad bit terrifying in its urgency to survive. If only all Resident Evil games took this type of quick story path.
Surviving said gameplay
Rogue Piñatas: VRmageddon’s gameplay is intuitive. You’re armed with a loaded bat, you have a gaggle of piñata coming after you, and you know instinctively that you must swing-away to survive. It’s a zombies mode at its gameplay core, yet just a bit more terrifying. There is just something unsettling about innocent and colorful creations wanting to kill you.
Anyway, what makes this game intense is how those creatures come from every direction. The VR experience is appropriate for this gameplay and never lets you catch your breath or feel settled. For example, when you begin the game, you are thrown into an open neighborhood where piñata bounce from every direction. There is not a comfortable place to maintain a home base position, as you will constantly have to move from location to location and keep an eye out over your shoulder to avoid getting taken down by the pleasant papier mâché monsters.
In a way, this is just perfect as the game wants you to feel uncomfortable and maintain a level of intensity when it comes to the fight. It works very well in VR and doesn’t feel forced or wasted. There is just enough intrigue, suspense, horror, and intensity to keep the gameplay fresh. You seriously won’t have time to think about anything else other than surviving.
On the topic of surviving, you survive by two methods – gathering candy left by the destroyed piñata and upgrades opened by that candy collection. When you take down a piñata, candy drops on the ground. If you gather enough candy, you will activate an upgrade menu that gives you multiple choices to level your character in some way. Those choices are random and depend on what you’ve already got equipped and how far you are in the game. These choices could be more life, better armor, smaller buffs, or new weaponry. The latter of that bunch keeps the gameplay whacky and fresh, as you will see a bevy of brutal and beautiful weapon options, such as a confetti gun, an axe, and/or upgrades to your original bat.
Motivating factors to keep taking down piñata are the upgrades and the boss reveal. If you take down enough piñata, then you unleash a boss. Getting to that point to unleash the boss is difficult and slow. In a way, it can feel like a slow car ride towards a goal. I think that might be the biggest turn-off for this game, as killing piñata is a dumb treat, but killing a ton of them to make it to the next step can feel like a chore at times.
Thankfully, the devs seemed to detect that and included various piñata to take down. You’ll see this quickly in the first stage of the game, as you will meet common piñata, shielded giant piñata, and even bee piñata. The variety is decent, and it helps to stimy that sense of repetition, but it still feels like a slog at times to get to the boss.
Now, having said that it certainly doesn’t mean you won’t have fun. Quite the opposite. Smashing endless numbers of piñata is somewhat soothing at times. The game does a great job of hooking you into the situation thanks to its VR format and emulating a sense of silly danger that will distract you from the aforementioned repetition of the endless stream of enemies. Combined with upgrades, you will find enough motivation to keep the gameplay somewhat fresh.
To add more to this dish, the game also features unlockable characters that bring unique styles to the gameplay and offer more variety. While I can’t tell you that I’ve unlocked everything in this game, as that is not the case, I like the fact that there are future options that will change how the game is played and how the experience is felt. Anytime more variety can be added to a survival VR experience of this type typically equals a good time.
Overall, the gameplay is solid with Rogue Piñatas: VRmageddon. While it is finite in its constant entertainment, the very concept and execution of a piñata-driven zombies mode in virtual reality is too good to pass up for any VR fan. There is enough here to make the gameplay work and maintain a sense of continual fun. Including a co-op mode only makes this a deeper experience, as I can see friends having a helluva time together beating up those poor piñatas.
On that note, let’s wrap up this review.
Conclusion
Rogue Piñatas: VRmageddon from developer Nerd Ninjas is just a dumb-fun survival experience. Endlessly taking down rebellious piñata with various weapons and characters makes for a good time. While it won’t be as deep or rich as other VR experiences on the Meta Quest, it’s still good gameplay that is come-and-go-as-you-please without a long-term commitment.
